Teahen's two-run homer vaults Royals past Pirates

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Mark Teahen erased a night of mistakes
with one swing of his bat.

Teahen had a throwing error, a baserunning blunder and could
have been charged with a second error on a hard-hit ball that was
ruled a single. Nevertheless, his tiebreaking two-run home run in
the eighth carried Kansas City to a 6-4 victory over Pittsburgh
Wednesday night and sent the Royals' third baseman home a happy and
very relieved young man.

"I was hacked off the whole game," he said. "I'll definitely
sleep a lot better tonight now than I would have earlier in the
game. I'm just glad I was able to help out a little after hurting
the team earlier."

Teahen, whose throwing error had led to an unearned run, hit the
first pitch from Salomon Torres (2-4) over the fence in right for
his fourth home run, giving the Royals their fifth win in seven
games. Emil Brown started the inning with a single against the
Pirates, who blew a 4-0 lead for the second night in a row and have
lost seven straight.

"When you're ahead 4-0 and have a lot of men on base, you
really have an opportunity to break things up, and if you don't
take advantage, it's going to make you pay," said Pittsburgh
manager Jim Tracy. "Our opportunity for the knockout punch was
there and we didn't take advantage."

"I'm disgusted with myself," said Torres. "I should have done
my job. Unfortunately, when you don't make the pitches at this
level, they're going to get hit. I'll just try to go out and do my
job next time, but with more intelligence."

Pittsburgh starter Ian Snell cruised through the first five
innings before Joey Gathright, making his first start in center one
day after coming over in a trade from Tampa Bay, singled to ignite
a four-run inning.

Mike Wood's throwing error on an errant pickoff at second led to
a Pittsburgh run in the first on Sean Casey's infield out. Then the
Pirates added two in the second with the help of a throwing error
by Teahen.

The Royals hadn't committed an error in nine straight games.
Jose Castillo's RBI single a moment later off Teahen's glove
brought in one run and then Joe Randa scored on an infield out by
Ronny Paulino.

Paulino's RBI single made it 4-0 in the sixth.

"Mark I'm sure felt as bad as anybody," said Royals manager
Buddy Bell. "Or if he didn't, he should have. But he kept playing
the game. He had a huge hit for us."

Snell, going for his sixth win in seven starts, went 5 1/3
innings and gave up four runs and seven hits, with two walks and
two strikeouts.

Wood went 5 2/3 innings for the Royals and was charged with four
runs -- two earned -- and seven hits, with two walks and one
strikeout.

Game notes

The Royals reached agreement with their second-round draft
pick, INF Jason Taylor of Kellam High in Virginia. KC has signed or
agreed to terms with 18 of their picks including 2-through-7. ...
After having troubles fielding in the earlier innings, Teahen made
a terrific stop of Jose Bautista's hard smash in the fourth. The
next batter, Jack Wilson, hit a hard bouncer to shortstop Berroa,
who threw him out from his knees. ... Sanchez has hit safely in his
last nine games. ... Paulino swung so hard through a 3-2 pitch with
two out in the eighth, he fell down.